Thursday, March 2, 2017

All About The Joan Crawford--Bette Davis Feud

On Sunday March 5 at 10 p.m. FX begins showing the new miniseries The Feud : Bette And Joan starring Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis.
Well, I know a lot about that feud, I met both ladies on several occasioned and interviewed many of their co-workers over the decades.
From my archives I've culled the juiciest quotes to illustrate the great hatred that always exiusted between Joan and Bette.:
VINCENT SHERMAN: I directed Bette in Mr. Skeffington (1944) and Joan in The Damned Don't Cry (1950). Bette was the more versatile actress but Joan was a star over a longer period and this irritated Bette.
I also had love affairs with both. On Mr Skeffington (1944) Bette's second husband had just died under mysterious circumstances and she was very needy. She wanted me to leave my wife and children and after I refused we never worked again.
Joan used sex to counter her feelings of loneliness. She always became the character she was playing. In the second film we did together Harriet Craig (1950) I used her compulsive need to dust and clean --she was cleaning away one day during a take when she looked up and said "I'm playing myself, right?" And she was right.
EDWARD DYNTRYK: When I directed Where Love Has Gone (1964) I had to cope with the hatred between Bette and Susan Hayward who was a toughie in her own right.
Bette not only had to take second billing but she was playing Susie's mother and was only a decade older than Susie.
Bette would storm onto the set shouting "Don't worry boys I've rewritten a few lines!"
Whereupon Susie would storm off the set, slam her dressing room shut and refuse to leave until all her lines were properly restored.
After I shot the last scene Bette turned to me and said "Am I finished, Mr. Director?"
I assured her that was so and she took off her white wig and tossed it at Susie and it bounced off her forehead.
"You disgusting old bitch!" shouted Susie as Bette exited Stage Left.
IRVING RAPPER: I had just finished directing The Gay Sisters (1942) with Miss Barbara Stanwyck who everybody loved when Warners announced I'd be directing Bette for the first time in Now, Voyager (1942) and Barbara gifted me with a wreath of black roses. She knew the travails I was going to face!
ANNA LEE: On the set of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane (1962) I had the dressing room between Crawford and Davis.
I could feel the great waves of hatred emanating from both dressing rooms. I felt quite noxious at times.
In one Bette had to drag Joan across the living room and Joan claimed Bette had deliberately kicked her in the face.
To retaliate Joan had jockey weights sewn into the hem of her skirt so when Bette had to drag her some more in the next scene the weight was so much Bette's back popped out a d she had to be taken to the hospital.
BETSY PALMER: On every picture Joan had to have a scapegoat and usually it was a young girl just starting out.
On Goodbye, My Fancy it was Janice Rule as the ingenue and Joan barked at her mercilessly.
On the picture I did with her Queen Bee (1955) she latched onto pretty little Lucy Marlowe and in one scene when Lucy forgot her lines because she was frightened Joan sucker punched her just like that!
GERALDINE FITZGERALD: Bette took me under her wing in Dark Victory (1939) which was my first big picture at Warners. I'd been warned by the director she'd try to get me out of focus during my big speech which is why I'm holding onto the piano with all my might. But you see I posed no thereat to her.
But Bette was never collegial. She'd just finished The Old Maid (1939) opposite Miriam Hopkins the greatest scene stealer of them all. Miriam appeared on set the first day wearing one of Bette's dresses from her past hit Jezebel and Bette went crazy.
VINCENT SHERMAN: On Old Acquaintance (1943) Bette and Miriam went on a dizzy field trip of trying to upstage each other. The day I had to photograph Bette slapping Miriam the rafters were filled with employees, Miriam was hated so. And Bette drilled one so hard Miriam's head bobbled up and down.
The next day Miriam phoned in sick saying she was suffering from a huge headache and her absence cost the studio thousands of collars.
GEORGE CUKOR: On The Women (1939) Joan was forced to take second billing to Norma Shearer and she hated this. During line reading rehearsals she'd click her knitting needles every time Norma had to make a speech. Finally I told her to stop at once and Joan fled from the stage in tears and wouldn't return that day.
CURTIS BERNHARDT: I directed Bette Davis as twins in A Stolen Life (1946) and then Joan Crawford in Possessed (1947) which she took over when Bette went on maternity leave. Joan took an Oscar nomination and Bette was not at all happy I can tell you.
They loathed each other because they saw themselves in each other. Both came from poverty. Both had been deserted by their fathers. Joan's childhood was more oppressive but neither had happy memories of their younger days. Joan would be in full makeup at 9 a.m. and nobody worked harder. Bette needed a lot of direction because she had a tendency to go over the top. Their dressing rooms were side by side but they never talked to each other. Joan was a diet freak, she'd nibble carrots at lunch. Bette would pork it on and then go on killer diets. I think they fascinated each other, they never stopped competing.
JOSEPH COTTEN: Joan started HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964) but claimed Bette was harassing her. Crawford had collected IOUs for the female stars up against Davis for the Oscar for Whatever Happened To Baby Jane and when Ann Bancroft won but couldn't make it (she was on Broadway) Joan whisked past Bette backstage and walked out and took the Oscar and made a great speech for Ann. Needless to say Bette was seething.
VINCENT SHERMAN: Joan pretended she had a virus and was in hospital when I visited her. She claimed she was in perfect health but had faked it to "get away from that bitch!" Then she jumped stark naked out of bed and we made furious love on the floor of the hospital room.
GERALDINE FITZGERALD: In 1977 Bette was the first woman to win the AFI award,Koan had just passed and I wonder what she would have made of this! Bette was astonished so many of her co-workers refused to attend including Robert Montgomery, George Brent, Irving Rapper and Vincent Sherman. Bette forgot how viciously she'd fought for her place in the sun.
NOTE: In i977 I interviewed Davis at her Hollywood apartment and told her that I had to leave at 5 p.m. to attend the Joan Crawford Salute at the Academy Awards theater.
BETTE DAVIS: Who'd salute that bitch?
ME: Well, the welcoming committee at the door includes John Wayne, Myrna Loy, Robert Young, Virginia Grey, Steven Spielberg (who'd directed Joan on TV's Night Gallery).
BETTE DAVIS: Well, I never said she wasn't important. She was old Hollywood, she worked at it harder than anyone I knew, that stardom which she truly believed in. But she was one tough broad is all I'll say.
VINCENT PRICEL: On Bete's last completed picture The Wales Of August (1984) Bette was her usual obstreperous self. She started picking on Lillian Gish and Miss Lillian was 91 for heaven's sake.
Director Lindsay Anderson was lining up a close-up of Miss Lillian when Bette burst in "Oh, fer gawd's sake, that old bitch invented the close-up!" That's Bette! Feuding and fighting and fussing!
-30-

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About Me

Jim Bawden has been a TV critic for 40 years starting at The Globe And Mail in 1970. In 1971 he became TV critic at The Spectator and in 1980 TV columnist at The Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper, retiring in 2008. He has written widely on movies and TV for TV Guide, Films In Review, Classic Images and Film Fan Monthly.